Truth or Dare?
by emygrl99
Summary: A training exercise gone wrong leads the paladins to learn more about each other than they'd ever thought- or wanted, for that matter.


**This lovely idea was based off of a post I saw on tumblr by catpearsonn and I just had to write it. I strayed a bit but I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, so I hope you enjoy! And a huge huge huge thanks to my lovely beta reader and wife shishiswordsman! I'm sorry I keep forgetting to credit you! ^^" I couldn't do this without you :***

 **NOTE: the paladins may seem out of character, but there's a reason for that (obviously). Also I aged Pidge up so she's around 17 or 18, cause why not.**

 **Find the original post here! (you'll need to take out the space after the dot):** **bit. ly/2gYBXRi**

* * *

"Alright, is everybody ready?" Allura strode through the doorway of the training room, a tray of cups in her hands. "There's one for each of you." She began to pass them out with Coran's help, and Lance suspiciously sniffed the clear liquid inside. It didn't smell like anything, but that only served to raise his suspicions even more. He'd heard somewhere that the deadliest poisons don't have any smell at all.

"Allura, what exactly is this stuff again? Are you buying us drinks?" he asked, trademark smirk rising to his lips. "I'm down for a little fun, but don't you think it's inappropriate for the small ones here?"

"For the last time Lance, we are the _same age_!" Pidge shouted, giving Lance the impression that she would have slammed her cup on the ground if it wasn't still full of mysterious liquid.

"Then why are you so short?" He retorted.

"Shiro's only like six and look how huge he is!"

Lance's mouth opened, but he couldn't counter that, and Pidge knew it too if her smug look was anything to go by.

"Princess, what is this?" Shiro cut in, ignoring the two of them.

"This is an Altean truth serum!" Coran piped up. "Or rather, a very diluted truth serum, as the undiluted serum actually acts as a deadly poison to most species. You'll drop dead the moment it touches your stomach! It's quite the gnarly way to go, believe me."

Hunk immediately spat the drink from his mouth, furiously wiping his tongue to remove any last traces of the drink from his mouth. " _Poison?_ You're trying to _poison_ us?!"

Similar reactions came from the rest of the group, but Coran merely laughed and waved them off. "Like I said, this is an extremely diluted solution. There's only one drop of the serum in the entire cup. When it's this watered down, it will force you to tell one single truth. The potency increases with a higher concentration of the serum. In certain parts of the universe, it's actually considered as a form of relationship therapy! If you consume a high enough concentration, the serum would force you to be honest for weeks at a time. And it does wonders for your skin as well," he added.

"The exercise we're doing today is meant to help foster trust and understanding between the five of you," Allura said, steering the conversation back on track. "You will all drink the entire cup, and one by one, we will go around and compliment one member of the team. One compliment per person, please, and don't select someone you were already friends with prior to leaving Earth." A warning glance was aimed at Lance and Hunk, who both pretended not to notice.

Allura continued with the explanation, but Lance tuned her out for the moment, making eye contact with Hunk.

' _Is this for real?_ ' he mouthed, tilting his head slightly towards the cup in his hand.

' _I guess so..?_ ' Hunk mouthed back, giving a minute shrug.

"All right paladins, go ahead and drink the serum."

Lance, of course, did as he was told. Coran had said that the cup was almost entirely water, but it tasted more bitter than the castle's recycled water usually did. He'd been expecting some kind of tingly feeling, telling him that he'd been magicked or something, but nothing changed.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was immediately shushed by Allura. "Not a word, Lance! The first thing out of your mouth must be the compliment or the serum will lose its effect," she scolded.

Lance made a show of locking his lips and throwing away the key, but judging from Allura's confused expression, the gesture was lost on her. Instead, he settled on giving her two thumbs up and a wink. That was a gesture that Lance knew Allura understood, thanks to their Earthling Gestures intervention a couple weeks back.

Allura turned her attention back to the others, who had all finished their cups by now. "Shiro, why don't you go first?" she prompted.

Shiro cleared his throat, turning to Hunk. "Hunk, I think that you are an incredible engineer and I wish that we had gotten the chance to meet under different circumstances. I realize this next sentence isn't serum-verified, but I consider us to be great friends and I look forward to working with you more in the future."

Hunk turned red, and a grin spread across his face. He almost spoke, but remembered himself at the last minute and gave Shiro a thumbs up.

"Excellent!" Allura piped up, pleased. "That is exactly what we're looking for, Shiro. Who would like to go next?"

Pidge rose her hand, looking somewhat embarrassed but equally determined. "Shiro, I just wanted to say that I'm genuinely so sorry of accusing you of hurting Matt in the arena, I didn't know you too well yet and I know now that you would never do something like that, but it was the closest I'd come yet to finding out what happened to my family and I was upset and worried and it manifested itself as aggression and distrust and I'm sorry, and also since I need a compliment, I think of you like a big brother cause you always seem to know when I'm upset and when I need space and it really means a lot to me and I love you." All of this was said in one quick breath that left everybody reeling for a few seconds afterwards.

While Lance wasn't entirely sure what Pidge was referring to, he wasn't surprised when Shiro opened his arms and Pidge climbed into his lap for a hug. "It's okay, Katie, I understand," Shiro promised, and Pidge nodded, settling into his lap for the long run. It was a little known fact that Pidge could actually get quite touchy-feely when upset, a lot like Lance himself.

Hunk went next. "Pidge, I think that we make a great team even though our areas of expertise are different, and I'm sorry about how nosey I can get with your contraptions, but they're just so _interesting_ , and I think that we have a lot to learn from each other." He looked pleased to get that off of his chest, and the next turn went to Keith.

With nobody else left to choose, Keith turned to Lance, taking a deep breath. "I think that you're a good fighter and I'd like to try training together sometime."

While that was certainly not what Lance had been expecting—like an admission that he _did_ remember Lance from the Garrison after all—he supposed he would have to take what he could get.

 _Okay McClain, you got this_ , Lance thought to himself, having had a while now to consider what to say. He'd been somewhat hoping that somebody else would nab Keith so Lance could choose anybody else, but he could do this. It didn't have to be a big compliment, it could be a small one about his hair or something, right?

"I remember the bonding moment."

Silence. And then-

"I KNEW IT!" Keith jumped up, and Lance slammed his hands over his mouth, but it was too late. What the _hell,_ that wasn't what he'd been planning to say at all!

"That's not what I was going to say!" Lance protested and jumped up. "I demand a redo!"

Keith was looking far too smug for Lance's liking. "You drank a truth serum, Lance! You can't possibly be lying, there's no way out." Keith paused. "But wait, if you remembered it, why did you lie and say you didn't?"

"Stop! That's enough, Keith, Lance," Allura interjected, looking less than pleased with how her exercise had ended. "Before anybody says or does something they'll regret—" a sharp look was directed towards the standing paladins—"why don't we all get some dinner and head to bed?"

There were affirmative noises all around and Lance and Keith both reluctantly nodded their agreement.

They all walked in pairs to the dining area. Pidge and Hunk were talking animatedly about working together on some new project. Shiro was with Keith, having a far more quiet conversation about training that Lance didn't care to listen in to. Allura and Coran were next, discussing the success of the exercise, things they would change, suggesting other ideas... all boring stuff Lance held no interest in.

He trailed behind the rest of the group, dropping into a chair at the end of the table. He still couldn't believe that he'd blurted out that he remembered the bonding moment. He was just going to say 'you're actually a pretty cool guy' or something equally safe. It's not like Keith had exactly given him a sparkling review either. 'Let's train sometime'? That was only a half step up from "you fight good"— _at best_. Compared to Hunk or Shiro or Pidge, Lance couldn't help but feel that he'd been cheated out of his compliment.

Lance glanced around the table, watching his teammates converse with each other and seeming much more at ease with each other now that some of their insecurities had been doused. Lance supposed he was lucky. There were a lot of worse things he could have admitted to.

It would be easy to just pass off his confession as being about a weird dream or something. Any excuse would do, really. Lance had managed to keep a lid on his emotions for this long, he would be fine.

Really.

"Coran, don't you have anything else you can make? This doesn't look appealing at all."

The entire table went silent, and Lance couldn't have been the only one swearing that he'd just misheard Shiro. Shiro was the polite one; Lance couldn't remember him having ever said something so blatantly rude to anybody before.

"I meant that." Shiro slapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide. "I did!"

"Well, Shiro, I'll go get something else then," Coran said tightly, picking up the plates he'd been laying out and returning to the kitchen.

"Coran, wait!" Shiro pushed out of his chair, following Coran into the kitchen and leaving a stunned silence in his wake.

Everybody else stared at each other for what felt like hours before Pidge finally spoke. "Well okay then. What's up with Shiro?" Everyone looked to Keith; he was the one closest to Shiro out of everyone here.

"I- I don't know," Keith said, running a quick nervous hand through his hair. "Shiro's never said anything like that before. Not since I last saw him back on Earth, but who knows how the Galra might have changed him."

Keith had voiced what everybody had been silently thinking.

"They've been in the kitchen for a while now," Hunk mused worriedly. "Should someone go check on them?"

"Why bother?" Lance muttered to himself before stopping. "No, that's not—I mean, Shiro's the best talker out of all of us, if there's something going on with him and Coran, I'm sure they'll be fine," he fumbled, face turning red.

"Allura... how much of that truth serum did you say was in those cups?" Pidge asked slowly, and silence swept through the room.

"Well, I- I don't know, exactly."

"You don't know?" Keith stood, slamming his hands on the table. "How could you possibly not know?"

Allura quickly copied Keith's stance, her tone defensive and flustered. "I don't know! Coran was the one who put the serum in, he said it was only a couple drops!"

"Are you lying about that? Why didn't _you_ take the serum with us?"

"Keith that's enough," Hunk interjected, standing as well and holding a protective arm in front of Allura. "This was nobody's fault. Allura, is there any way to know how much of that serum we all ingested?"

"I- yes. I can take blood samples from you all and hopefully Coran and I will be able to figure out how long the effect will last." With a purpose now in mind, Allura nodded to herself and made her escape from the dining hall.

Lance wanted nothing more than to follow her and hide somewhere where he wouldn't be able to say anything. Tension was quickly rising in the room as the full understanding of what had happened hit home. His stomach was churning with anxiety and everything felt far away somehow, but he put on a smile anyways. "Come on guys, this is pretty much the worst thing that could have happened. No, shit." His head fell into his hands; his usual tactic of bluffing his way out to keep the others together wouldn't work anymore. "That's not what I wanted to say."

"How about we all think of this as an extension of the exercise?" Hunk suggested.

"That's not going to work," Pidge sighed. "Knowing that I can't lie for an unknown amount of time is just going to stress me out, which will make me talk _more_ , and I'm sure you guys do _not_ want to know about all of my disgusting habits like how I-."

"Hold it right there!" Lance commanded, interrupting Pidge before she had the chance to spill anything significant. "I have an idea guys, hold on for a sec!"

Lance hurried from the room, ignoring the confused and hopeful looks he received. He returned to the dining room before long, armed with a pen and paper. He laid the paper on the table where everyone could see it and wrote the words 'my name is Keith' across the top. When the words didn't magically alter themselves to the truth, Lance let out a sigh of relief.

"We can still write whatever we want, truth or not. I suggest we all agree to stop talking out loud and communicate entirely through paper or the like until this situation is sorted out. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm sure there are plenty of things we're all better off not saying. Agreed?"

Everyone considered the idea before offering reluctant murmurs of approval. Nobody liked the idea of not being allowed to talk, but what alternative was there?

As Lance was handing out the rest of the supplies he'd gathered, Shiro emerged from the kitchen, cheeks dusted pink.

"Guys, I think the truth serum is still in effect," he said, and everybody laughed. The tension finally bled from the room and Lance sauntered over to Shiro, slapping paper and a pen into his hands.

"No kidding."

The next morning Allura confirmed that they'd been mistakenly overdosed on the truth serum. They were all too exhausted from a bad night's rest to be upset anymore, and the lounge was completely silent other than the scratching sound of pens on paper.

"Allura." Shiro held up his paper that read 'how long will this last?'

Allura hesitated, but was reassured as Coran entered the room. "The effect of the serum should last about a week or so." Furious scribbling was the only response, but Allura halted their written demands by raising her hand. "Please, wait just a moment." Coran handed Allura one of the cups he was holding and with one final glance, they both drank the contents.

"We just drank the same amount of truth serum as you all did yesterday as a sign of sincere apology for our mistake. We know that this won't be much consolation for you all, but we are all a part of the same team, and it would be selfish of us to remain unaffected while you five deal with the consequences of our mistake. We are truly sorry," Allura said.

With no other choice but to believe her sincerity, nobody offered up dissent. "Princess, what are we going to do about the castle? We can't fight the Galra when one slip-up can give away our entire plan," Shiro said slowly.

"No, we cannot. That's why Coran and I are going to hide the ship in a more remote part of the galaxy where Zarkon hopefully will not follow us."

"Okay, but what about _us_ ," Lance piped up. "I know I came up with the whole pen-and-paper thing, but I'm going to get tense and probably depressed again after an entire week of the silent treatment." His cheeks heated up as he gave away more than intended, but nobody commented on it.

Hunk lifted his hand to indicate there was something he wanted to say, and wrote, 'I think that we can suspend paper-only talking for now. Like Lance said, it's only going to make things more difficult in the long run. What if we resort to using paper only for sensitive topics where the truth would only make things worse?'

"That's actually a pretty good idea," Pidge ventured, pleased when she didn't immediately blurt out anything horrible. "I guess the best we can do for now is just think carefully before we speak so there are no unexpected surprises."

"Are we all in agreement then?" Shiro asked, looking around at the nodding heads—all except one. "Keith?"

Everyone looked at Keith who was slumped against the wall, arms crossed. He met their gazes challengingly, breaking after a moment of silence. "I think it's a bad idea, okay? It's too risky. There's too much we could all accidentally say and I don't want to l—"

Keith covered his mouth, muffling the last words so they couldn't be understood.

"You don't want to what, Keith?" Shiro prodded gently.

Keith opened his mouth before snapping it shut, instead choosing to make a hasty exit from the room. Shiro sighed, watching the empty doorway sadly. "I'll go talk to him."

The following few days were just as tense and awkward as Lance had been praying they wouldn't. Everybody tried to keep their verbal talking to a minimum, and any conversations Lance had had felt undeniably forced and stilted.

Everybody mutually drifted apart, burying themselves in whatever work they could find to pass the time. Allura and Coran had run maintenance on the ship a dozen times by now. Shiro and Keith trained incessantly, and Pidge retreated to her room for most of the day, probably doing stuff with her computer.

Lance's only saving grace was Hunk. Sweet, beautiful, wondrous Hunk who Lance had known for so long that there were practically no secrets between the two of them anyways. As long as their conversations stayed clear of a certain mullet, they could talk freely to each other, even if the result was that any bystanders would end up learning far more about the two of them than they'd ever wanted. Lance had long since passed the point of being embarrassed.

It was on one of the quieter days when Pidge got an idea. It was just after lunch, so everybody was hovering in the lounge, pretending to be social. It was clear everyone was feeling anxious, the pressure of the words they wanted to say versus the knowledge that they wouldn't be able to control how they said it weighing heavily.

"Alright bitches, listen up cause I have a great idea."

"Oh no." Lance wasn't the only one to sink into the couch in despair, already dreading whatever Pidge was about to suggest.

"Don't 'oh no' me, this is a golden opportunity!" Pidge crowed. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of this. We're not talking cause there's stuff we don't want others to accidentally find out about, right?"

"I suppose," Allura conceded.

Pidge made her way around the lounge, tugging everybody to sit on the floor in the middle of the ring of couches. Lance was fairly certain that the only reason anybody cooperated was because this was the most exciting thing to happen all week and they were all desperate for something new.

"Right. So I propose we play a game." Pidge flounced down into an empty spot, making a grand gesture around the circle. "A game—of _Truth or Dare_ ," she revealed dramatically. Next to her, Hunk made a dramatic bwa bwa bwaa~ noise, masking the groans from across the circle.

"Truth or Dare? What's that?" Coran asked.

"It's a party game where you can either ask someone a question and they have to respond honestly, or you can dare them to do something ridiculous and they have to do it. Trust me, it's _a lot_ of fun," Pidge assured. Lance did not like the evil glint in her eye.

"I'm out." Keith stood up, but was immediately tackled by an angry Pidge.

"I have been suffering in silence for four days now, Kogane, and I am _this close_. Do you want to see what I'll be like in another three? _You will not take this from me_ ," she hissed.

"Are you guys seriously going to do this?" Keith shot a disbelieving stare around the circle, but was met with apologetic looks.

"Sorry Keith, but Pidge is right," Hunk said. "This awkwardness is getting painful. At this point, I'm up for anything to break the ice."

Everyone else murmured their agreements, but Lance internally agreed with Keith wholeheartedly. As horrible as not talking was, the whole point of using paper was to avoid spilling things that shouldn't be spilled. Paper was safe. Truth or dare was by no means safe in any way, shape, or form. "I dunno, Pidge—"

"Shut it, Lance!" Pidge furiously scribbled on her paper, holding it up for the room to read. 'or do you want me to tell everyone about what I found you doing a couple days ago?'

"You wouldn't dare," Lance said, eyes narrowing into a glare.

"Try me."

Their stare-down didn't last long, and Lance was the first to look away. He'd already learned once what happened when someone crossed an angry Pidge, and Lance didn't particularly feel like being strung from the ceiling in his underwear during the night. As long as he avoided certain topics, he'd be fine. Plus, the lack of verbal communication was really starting to put him on edge anyway. He never realized just how much he loved to talk until suddenly, he couldn't.

"...fine."

"Whoo!" Pidge cheered and hugged Lance tightly before pushing him back to his spot. "Now sit while I lay down some ground rules."

Pidge put up her hand, ticking down fingers as she went along. "No writing, gestures, or non-english words allowed as answers for questions. Responses must be verbal and honest, and no sexual questions are allowed. Dares must be something that can be completed in a minute or less to prevent the game from taking too long, and no nudity is allowed, period. The same person cannot be chosen to do a dare or answer a question twice in a row, and nobody can reuse a dare or question. To make sure that everybody gets included, we'll go around the circle clockwise starting with me. Anybody who chickens out of a question or a dare will have to go one hour without paper for every prompt they refuse. Sound good?"

Shiro laughed nervously. "Sounds like you have this down to a science, huh Pidge?"

"You have no idea." Pidge's response was entirely neutral with a blank expression, and Lance couldn't be the only one starting to regret all of his life choices.

"Alright, so my turn! I choose Lance. Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to lick the floor."

Lance narrowed his eyes. "So that's how it's going to be?"

"You know it is," Pidge returned smugly.

"Then you better be prepared to lose. I'll have you know that I am the King of truth or dare!" Lance didn't break eye contact with Pidge once as he leaned forward and gave the floor a long, sensual lick. It tasted like sweat, dirt and something unidentified, but Lance had suffered much worse at the hands of Truth or Dare.

The looks of disgust from everybody in the circle were more than enough to satisfy him, and it passed onto Hunk's turn.

Their game of truth or dare actually ended up being quite fun, once Lance finally got the sensation of carpet burn off of his tongue. He generally stuck to dares, being the least shameful member of the group, and Coran was unexpectedly wicked with his proposed dares. There were some that even Lance would be unwilling to do under normal circumstances, which was saying a lot. Needless to say, his title of king needed to be defended, no matter the cost.

"Lance, truth or dare?"

"Truth." It was Allura asking. Her dares and questions had been the weakest out of everybody's so far, so Lance figured he'd humor her. Plus he didn't want anybody to think he was wimping out of choosing truths either.

"If you had to date anybody in this room, who would it be?"

"Keith."

The answer was instantaneous, and the room was silent as everybody processed those words. _Shit, fuck, no!_ "Or Hunk..?" he added weakly, but the damage had been done.

Pidge whistled, fanning herself as if to ward off the tension. "Now that's something I never would've guessed. You two have your rivalry and all that."

"I suspected it," Hunk admitted, immediately wilting. "Sorry, Lance."

Lance felt like everybody's eyes were burning into him, even as they moved on with the game. It took a solid minute before Lance could raise his head, realizing that nobody was paying any attention to him at all. It was like they hadn't even cared.

"Keith, truth or dare?" Pidge asked.

"Truth."

"Would you date Lance?"

"Absolutely."

Lance's head shot up, not daring to believe his ears. _Keith_ would date _him?_

"Seriously?" Lance couldn't stop himself from asking, making eye contact with Keith for the first time in four days. If it wasn't for the fact that Lance had seen Keith drinking the truth serum too, he would've suspected foul play. How could Keith be into him? _Keith?!_

"Of course," Keith piped out between his fingers, looking as if he shared Lance's pain in that moment. "I need to shut up now, holy shit. Moving on!" he declared, gesturing to Hunk that he could take his turn next.

"It looks like you two have a lot to talk about after this is over," Allura said delicately, not looking chided at all when two heated glares were shot her way.

"I'm leaving," Lance muttered, making as quick of an exit from the room as humanly possible to hide his reddening face and wet eyes. His feet wandered the halls aimlessly, no destination in mind.

He _knew_ that playing truth or dare would be a bad idea. He knew it! Truth or dare always got to the dating questions eventually, Lance was an idiot for thinking that he'd be able to keep his fat mouth shut. And now everybody knew. _Keith_ knew, and he felt the same?

Lance was contemplating the merits of taking a second go at ejecting himself into space when he found himself entering the hangar where Blue stayed. She automatically activated at his presence and lowered her head to the ground, mouth opening to allow Lance to climb inside.

Instead of heading to the cockpit like usual, Lance turned the opposite way down to a storage area. He'd stocked the little area with the softest blankets he could find and some snacks for use in emergencies. He immediately pulled out one of the fluffier blankets and wrapped it around his shoulders, unashamed to seek what little comfort he could get.

Usually Lance would go to Hunk or Coran when he was upset, but that obviously was not an option. More than anything, Lance wanted to be alone. Or well, he wasn't alone. Blue was curled up in the back of his mind; a reassuring and unobtrusive presence that Lance clung to even as he began distancing himself from the rest of the world.

Blue was one of the very few connections to Earth that Lance had left, and despite the fact that she couldn't properly talk, Lance always felt calmer after spending time with her. He curled up on a storage bin, allowing Blue's quiet thrumming—purring?—to lull him into a sense of safety.

When Lance woke up, it took him several moments to realize that there was shouting outside. He sat up blearily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he made his way to the cockpit to see what was going on. When he saw a familiar mullet standing in front of Blue and asking to be let in, the desire to go back to the storage room and take another nap was nearly too strong to resist.

He'd obviously been there for a few minutes already, pacing and looking stressed as he tried talking to the lion. "Blue, _please_ , Shiro made me come in here and won't let me leave until Lance and I 'talk it through' even though that's obviously the last thing I want to do!" Blue raised her head higher, moving Lance further from the source of his discomfort and giving Keith a clear idea of what her answer was.

Lance felt a rush of gratitude for Blue's loyalty, but also shame. No matter how much he didn't want to talk to Keith right now, Lance was hiding, and he knew it. He hadn't been raised to run from his problems, and he couldn't stay in Blue forever.

He may be far from home, but he wouldn't let that change who he was. Crush or not, something needed to be done. And it wasn't like he had anything to hide anymore, right?

Right.

"It's okay girl, let me out," he murmured, running a hand along the wall as he made his way to the exit. "I can't run forever."

 _A gentle thrum of concern._

"Yeah, I'm sure. Just.. stay close, okay?" he whispered, patting one of her metallic teeth.

 _Another thrum of reassurance._

"Thanks, girl," Lance smiled.

Blue opened her mouth, and Lance gingerly stepped back onto the hangar floor where Keith was waiting. His look of surprise wasn't exactly confidence-building, but Lance sucked in a deep breath, ready to lay everything on the table once and for all.

"Keith-"

"Lance-"

"Sorry-"

"You go first-"

There was a moment of silence until both of them cracked a smile.

"We can take turns?" Lance suggested, feeling more than a little silly at the idea.

"Sure," Keith agreed.

"You first!" Lance squeaked, getting cold feet at the last moment.

"Okay," Keith agreed. "This is really awkward and embarrassing for me, so... let's get one thing clear first. Do you... have a crush on me?"

"Yeah." It felt unbelievably good to admit that, Lance noted. "And you... have one on me?" He tried to keep the hope from showing in his voice, but by this point he doubted Keith would had even noticed.

"Yeah, I do," Keith said, scuffing his foot on the ground nervously. "How long for you?"

"A few months maybe? That's how long it's been since I accepted it at least." Lance thought back to the day he first met Keith all those years ago. "Remember that note you got in the middle of class that one day? The one that said to get out of my school?"

Keith's eyes widened as his head shot up. "That was _you?_ "

Lance couldn't help but laugh, the heat in his cheeks a pleasant one as he rubbed his neck. "Yeah. I'm not the best at dealing with crushes and stuff like that. Obviously. Not that I've had other crushes, you were my first actually. Hunk never said anything, but I know he knows. He probably thought it was cute," Lance griped, thankful when Keith interrupted him again.

"Lance... If you've liked me all this time, why did you lie about the bonding moment?"

"Because that's when I realized how deep into shit I was," Lance said, feeling embarrassed now that he realized how pointless it had been to deny it. "And after the whole big deal I made about our rivalry to cover the crush, I couldn't just up and admit that I was crushing on you! I'd never be able to live it down!"

Lance's face was redder than red, but the fact that Keith's was even more so made the admission much more bearable. "That's when I realized too," Keith admitted softly. "I guess neither of us expected to get stuck in space fighting an intergalactic war."

Lance had to laugh at how ridiculous it sounded. "What, didn't you read the little pamphlet in the mail? It had little drawings and everything."

"Must have missed me," Keith said dryly, but the tension between them had finally melted. He was hiding a smile, Lance could tell.

"There's just one thing I don't get," Lance ventured uncertainly, not wanting to ruin the relaxed atmosphere but needing to know.

"What?"

"When we both saved Shiro, you said that you didn't remember me despite all of the effort I put in just trying to catch up with you at the Garrison. And I mean I get the whole crush thing and I'm not one to talk after lying about the bonding moment, but... am I really that forgettable?"

"Lance, _no_. How could you think something like that?"

"You know, cause I'm not especially smart or strong or skilled, and the only reason I made it past the first year at the Garrison was because you dropped out and your room slot opened. Even here, saving the whole universe, what am I to the team?" he wondered, the thoughts he'd been trying to bury for so long finally erupting.

"Shiro's our leader, Hunk's the engineer, Pidge is the techie, Allura's the princess, even Coran is the crazy uncle, and you're some kind of a super saiyan samurai. Allura herself said that Blue was the most accepting out of all the lions." Lance paused, suddenly feeling breathless by the weight of his confession. "No matter how you look at it... I'm replaceable."

Keith took Lance's head into his hands, forcing their eyes to meet and cutting off Lance's self-deprecating tirade. He looked incredibly pained, but Lance didn't dare to guess why. "Lance, _you're not replaceable_. I don't even see how you could _think_ that, let alone believe it so much that this truth serum doesn't affect your words. As far as I'm concerned, you're the least replaceable member of this whole team."

Tears welled up in Lance's eyes as Keith spoke, and Lance didn't notice that he'd already started silently crying until Keith's thumbs moved to wipe away the wetness on his face. "You're our sharpshooter, the one who always cheers us up after a hard day and keeps us grounded. You're the one who stops us all from going insane on a daily basis by driving us insane in a totally different way," Keith laughed a little helplessly.

"You're the blue paladin for a reason. The fact that Blue's the most accepting doesn't mean you're replaceable, it means that you're the most open minded and friendly. You're the heart of this team. We could never be the same without you. So please, Lance. Don't ever think that you're replaceable."

Lance pulled Keith into a tight hug, tears flowing freely now as he clung to Keith's shirt. Under any other circumstances, it would have been so easy to brush off Keith's words as nothing more than an attempt to cheer him up, but not this time. Even without knowing that the serum verified every one of Keith's words, it was impossible to miss the sincerity in Keith's voice. He believed every word he said.

"Thank you," Lance whispered, pulling Keith even closer.

"Any time, Lance," Keith promised, awkwardly patting Lance's hip. "Also you're hurting me and I want you to stop cause this is making me feel incredibly uncomfortable."

Lance laughed, pulling away and wiping at his face again even though it accomplished nothing. "Sorry. We should talk again sometime, when we're _not_ hyped up on magical drugs."

"It's a date," Keith said softly.

The blush returned, of course, but Lance could hardly feel it beneath the happiness swelling in his chest. He took Keith's hand, squeezing it gently.

"Yeah, it's a date."

* * *

 **So if you feel that I may have written the paladins out of character, you're right, and there's a reason for that! This truth serum essentially bypasses any pre-speaking thought that would normally go into their minds before saying anything, but it's not as if they're compulsively required to tell any and every truth. Meaning they can control what they say, but not how they say it, so there's no premeditated phrasing or beating around the bush of what they want to say. They just say it, and as a result it often comes out crass or rude because there's no filter there.**

 **Keith in particular strikes me as someone who has a lot to say but no idea how to say it since his people skills aren't too great, so this serum is a blessing in some way because it lets him just spit out all the words he's been wanting to say for a long time, and not all of those are sunshine and rainbows, you know? The most interesting thing I found about writing this is that by taking away everybody's internal filter, I could get right down to the core of their characters so much easier, which you don't see much in the show, hence why they all probably seem out of character here.**

 **And for Lance, his biggest crutch is self-doubt. Cause he loves his teammates and loves the affection and acceptance they show back, but he always doubts himself no matter how much he tries to hide that. So when this whole serum thing goes down, Lance is freaked out cause he doesn't want his teammates to find out how messed up he thinks he is inside. But it's also a blessing in disguise for him too because whenver someone says something that he would usually brush off or misinterpret, he stops, because he realizes that that's literally impossible. When Keith says he's not replaceable, there's nothing else that could possibly mean, so Lance can finally take a big step towards convincing himself that other people do care and that he is valuable, which is great.**

 **But yeah, enough rambling. I had a lot of fun writing this, and I'm considering maybe doing something else like this some day, either an extension of the AU or something completely different, but don't hold me to that lmao. Please leave a comment if you liked it cause comments are my lifeblood and #1 motivator to get me writing more ;) Thanks for reading, I hope you have a lovely day~**


End file.
